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30 November 2014

Just a few weeks back, I was speaking to one of the boys who played for the last high school team that I coached. We were both excited that, on his last year in college, he has finally broken into his university’s varsity football team.

He was fairly certain at the time that he would be in the line-up for Season 77 of the UAAP. Because I had heard that this season’s UAAP football tournament would be getting decent television coverage, I told him that I was looking forward to watching him play on TV.

Because the UAAP Men’s Football Tournament was scheduled to commence yesterday, I went to the Internet to try and see if I could find a schedule of the games’ television coverage online. I could not.

29 November 2014

Batelec II through its Facebook page has released the following schedules of power interruption for 5, 9-10 December 2014. Please note that the schedule is being reproduced by Life So Mundane as a service to the public. Future outage schedules will be included in the News section of Life So Mundane.

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28 November 2014

First of all, it will serve nobody any real good to read too much into last night’s rather meek 1-3 surrender to Vietnam in the 2014 AFF Suzuki Cup. We went to Hanoi to qualify for the semi-finals; and we did that with a game to spare. At this point in the tournament, that is all that matters.

Malaysia actually suffered a 1-5 shellacking at the hands of hosts Indonesia in the group stages of the 2010 Suzuki Cup before going on to win the tournament with a flourish. In 2012, Singapore began the tournament indifferently, losing 0-1 to Indonesia and needing a Laos meltdown to even qualify for the semi-finals.

If at all the Philippines were allowed to lose a game in the Suzuki Cup, it was this one. All the players as well as team management deserve nothing but praise for having earned this luxury. The defeat was, if we are all being honest, rather humbling. That said, it was Vietnam and not us who had all the motivation to win the match.

25 November 2014

There is, indeed, a time for everything. Philippines 4 Indonesia 0 may not quite be payback for the ignominy of the 1-13 rout at the Bung Karno 12 years ago; but the first-ever victory over Indonesia was every bit as comprehensive.

Moreover, because both Indonesia and Vietnam could only draw their opening match against each other in the 2014 Suzuki Cup, tonight’s victory for the Azkals meant that they are the first team to qualify for the semi-finals.

Ironically, Indonesia could have nicked ahead as early as the 2nd minute when the Philippines failed to properly clear a freekick; and Daisuke Sato, who played with a maturity well beyond his 19 years of age, had to clear off the line.

24 November 2014

Batelec II through its Facebook page has released the following schedules of power interruption for 1-2 December 2014. Please note that the schedule is being reproduced by Life So Mundane as a service to the public. Future outage schedules will be included in the News section of Life So Mundane.

2 December 2014
Relocation of pole
8:00am-4:00pm
Lalayat, San Jose
Anus, San Jose
Sabang, San Jose
Tugtug, San Jose

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23 November 2014

It is almost invariably the goalscorers who get all the attention after a football game; but even the most prolific goalscorers in world football will be the first to say that they have the easiest job of all sticking the ball into the net. Football is and will always be a team game; and goalscorers will have nothing to celebrate were it not for the silent graft of some of their teammates.

So while Phil Younghusband’s man-of-the-match performance against Laos in the Suzuki Cup last night might have caught the eye, as did Patrick Reichelt’s brace, the convincing 4-1 victory could not have been achieved without the contributions of the team’s unsung heroes. For starters, this feature takes a look at three of these.

JERRY LUCENA

When one considers that there have been Europe-based players who were quick to make themselves unavailable for selection by the national team because of personal differences with Thomas Dooley, then one can all the more appreciate what droopy-eyed Jerry Lucena continues to do for the country sans the fanfare that typically surrounds the other players.

22 November 2014

Batelec II through its Facebook page has released the following schedules of power interruption for 27, 28 and 30 November 2014. Please note that the schedule is being reproduced by Life So Mundane as a service to the public. Future outage schedules will be included in the News section of Life So Mundane.

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If you enjoyed this article, please click the Like button or share it freely on social media. It helps to pay this site's domain name and maintenance costs.

It initially did not quite go according to script; but in the end it was a comfortable 4-1 win for the Philippine Azkals against their former bogey opponents from Indochina. Two wins in a row over Laos, the first one in the AFC Challenge Cup, and the hoodoo that the Laotians once held over us appears to have been expunged.

Of course, it looked anything but after 21 minutes when Sayavutth curled an exquisite freekick over the Philippines wall which thumped against he post and into goal. Patrick Deyto, debuting in the AFF Suzuki Cup, had absolutely no chance.

Not that the freekick ought to have been conceded in the first place. Two successive cup finals had been lost because of freekicks conceded in dangerous positions. The lesson appears to still be unlearned by the Philippines’ defence.

20 November 2014

This picture was taken during the Lasallian Youth Congress which I did not discover until recently was in the Archives.

My lips almost involuntarily smiled at the sight of Lim Em Beng, a living legend of the DLSU Green Archers, in this nostalgic video about the great rivalry between the Archers and the Blue Eagles. I missed him by a year. He had graduated by the time I enrolled at DLSU in 1975, so I missed the great NCAA championship-winning team.

It made me smile all the more when he used the word ‘Lasallites’ instead of the by-now more conventional ‘Lasallians.’ Most of us raised by the De La Salle Christian Brothers up to the seventies almost unconsciously think of ourselves still as Lasallites or, in the vernacular, Lasallistas.

The more contemporary word Lasallian, if memory serves me right, was being pushed for usage in the Philippine District of the Christian Brothers only by the early eighties. In fact, this was the theme of the third Lasallian Youth Congress to which I was sent to deliver a speech early in 1985 by then DLSL Principal Br. Jaime Dalumpines. It was being hosted by DLSU-Manila in its Taft campus.

17 November 2014

Late last month, when I went to attend the dry-run and blessing of the new Pancake House restaurant in Lipa City, I was surprised as the store manager seated me and my companion when he asked me if I was the football coach. Although he was asking a question, the tone with which he asked it sounded more like he already knew that I was.

Then there was the curious fact that I had not laid my eyes on him before that moment. So I felt impelled to ask, “Yes, how do you know that?” He nodded in the direction of a chef in black coat by the cashier’s counter whom I was sure I also had not seen before.

The name of the chef, I was told, was Nikko Reyes; and that he was from Lipa. I asked to speak to the young man, who quickly came to join us at our table. He was not from Lipa at all but rather from the Municipality of Mataas-na-Kahoy, probably a quarter of an hour from the city.

15 November 2014

A 13th minute cannonball from the ever-effervescent Fil-Samurai Daisuke Sato, a 40th minute right-place-right-time follow through by Manny Ött and a second half added time God’s mercy goal by Phil Younghusband when he was almost dispossessed before scoring gave the Philippine Azkals a comfortable 3-nil win over Cambodia last night in a friendly international at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.

It was the Azkals’ send-off match before they fly out to Hanoi for the 2014 edition of the AFF Suzuki Cup; and the stands were crying for spectators. But on a payday Friday with mall sales going on all over the metropolis, not even an eight o’clock kick-off could tempt the fans to send off the squad with gusto.

Thomas Dooley needs to win the Suzuki Cup to reignite the fervour; and whether his squad can or not last night’s friendly against Cambodia offered some clues.

13 November 2014

The 2014 AFF Suzuki Cup kicks off on the 22nd of November when the Philippines play against qualifier Laos in the opening match to be played at the Mỹ Đình National Stadium in Hanoi, Vietnam. The two nations are bracketed in Group A of the elimination round with Indonesia and host nation Vietnam.

Group B action begins the following day when 2010 Suzuki Cup champions Malaysia take on qualifier Myanmar at the Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore. Thailand and host team Singapore complete the group.

The Philippines arrive as the highest ranked team in Southeast Asia according to the last ranking released by FIFA on 23 October 2014. The ranking will not be updated until 27 November 2014, the day before the last round of 2014 Suzuki Cup group matches are to be played.

09 November 2014

I will be very surprised if we win the 2014 AFF Suzuki Cup, and not just because our Philippine Azkals were sucker-punched three times by the Thais last night in Bangkok. After having the feel-good restored in two friendlies against lightweight opponents Papua New Guinea and Nepal, with the Suzuki Cup a fortnight away it was time to step up the preparations with a match against a higher calibre team.

If anything, however, it was the matches against PNG and Nepal that raised doubts about our chances. Neither of these two teams possessed much quality at the attacking end. Yet both still managed, albeit on rare occasions, to create awkward situations when the Philippines defended with the assuredness of schoolboys.

Territorial and possession statistics, I would surmise, have been better than anything that we had during the Simon McMenemy and Michael Weiss eras. Neither of these wins matches, however. At the end of the day, the aesthetics have to be converted into chances and, crucially, into goals.

07 November 2014

An authentic 18th century camera greets visitors right at the gates of the heritage home that is Galleria Taal.

I first heard of the Camera Museum from the Southern Tagalog edition of TV Patrol. That was a couple or so months ago; but it was only yesterday that I was finally able to make the visit I had been aching to make for a while.

The Museum is actually called the Galleria Taal, along Agoncillo Street and inside one of the numerous heritage houses in the historic little town of Taal in Batangas. The museum’s main attraction is the large collection of 18th and 19th century cameras owned by Manny Barrion Inumerable.

However, because the museum itself is a heritage home, even the Spanish-era architecture, complete with a second floor veranda, capiz-shell windows and furniture are something to be amazed at. Moreover, from the walls hang nostalgic 18th and early 19th century photographs, including that of national hero Jose Rizal being shot at Bagumbayan.

I will not do the gallery any justice by doing a descriptive article. Instead, I make available some pictures and a couple of videos to hopefully encourage readers to make the visit.

06 November 2014

This article is addressed to younger readers, particularly those still in school or fresh off it. If have not learned your written English well, you really should have because you will live to regret it. Your command of English does not have to be flawless grammatically; and neither do you have to be a walking dictionary.

All you need is to be able to communicate your ideas in a manner that can be understood with vocabulary that is appreciable across all levels of an organisation. You will most likely not be asked to write works of literature; so you really do not even have to be Shakespeare’s reincarnation.

What you need is to be accurate but concise; eloquent but not wordy. As mentioned, your grammar does not have to be flawless – although that is always an advantage – but what you need is to be able to present your thoughts in an organised manner.

03 November 2014

In this evening’s edition, TV Patrol started airing special reports on what has transpired in areas most severely affected by last year’s phenomenal Super-Typhoon Haiyan, a.k.a. Yolanda.

The most powerful typhoon to ever have made landfall crossed the Philippines on the 8th of November last year; and the special reports, I suppose, are ABS-CBN’s way of commemorating the event.

First of all, the areas in Samar which were being shown on television are probably all a long way from being what they used to be. What concerns me about the video clips that were being shown by TV Patrol was that efforts to rebuild seemed to have been aimed simply at restoring what used to be.